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LG planning to sell Nexus 4 at €599 outside Google Play?

The MoDaCo News Team are starting to see reports that independent retailers like Phone House in Europe are refusing to stock the Nexus 4 as LG wont let them have it at the Google Play Store price.

Phone House España, the Spanish arm of Carphone Warehouse, has stated on it's Facebook page that it is refusing to stock the Nexus 4, as LG want to charge a Recommended Retail Price of €599 Euros (£479.58 according to xe.com) per device.

Devices on Google Play is currently only available to customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States.

So if you don't live in these countries, you can currently expect to pay nearly twice the cost for a Nexus 4, compared to someone who lives in the above countries and can purchases their phone from the Play Store. This also explains the crazy contract prices we are seeing for the Nexus 4, just because you have not purchased directly from the Google Play Store.

17 Comments

I am very fortunate to be in the UK and able to purchase from the Play Store. This seems very immoral behaviour from LG and there is no way I'd be buying if I could not get it through Google.
Assuming they aren't making a loss from Play Store sales, this increased price outside it is just profiteering.

Google aren't playing by the usual rules of the carriers. Usually handset makers are discouraged to cheaply sell unlocked phones directly to customers; this is why you can only buy a sim-free iPhone 4S for just about what it would cost over the length of a 12 month contract, for example. It's a relatively new paradigm, buying an expensive smartphone upfront, then getting a cheap monthly contract, but probably one that will work out better for the consumer, making their choices more transparently and switching easier. It does seem a little unfair on those who don't have access to Google's grand experiments though... as other have said they will have the option of fishing around on ebay, if they aren't bothered about warranties and so on.

Nah, it'll be like the Galaxy Nexus. They'll maintain stock and keep selling it until a successor comes out. By 'bulk' he means they'll have committed to buy a very large amount of phones from LG, numbering in the millions.